Meet Pietro and Simone, two young Made in Piasco riders

   1. Introduce yourself

Hi everyone, I'm Pietro Mattio, I'm 18 and I'm attending the final year of Liceo Scientifico. This year, after 12 years of racing for Team Vigor, I changed teams and now I ride for the Jumbo Visma Development team.

   2. How long have you been a pro?

Unfortunately I can't call myself a pro yet because I ride for a satellite team of the World Tour, so if one day I manage to move up the ranks I can officially call myself a PRO.

   3. Briefly describe your sports routine

The routine of a sportsman varies a bit according to the season, plus I'm still studying so everything is more complicated.
My daily routine is quite full, after school which ends at 13 I dedicate myself to training and studying throughout the afternoon. Around 8pm I have dinner, then I try to relax, stretch and go to bed at about 10.30pm to be ready for the next day!
There are days when you train a little less and others more but the routine is always punctuated by training and study sessions.
A very important thing that is part of the routine is nutrition, to go strong you need to take care of every little detail and therefore you need to pay attention to the foods you eat (even if one or two "cheat meals" a week are good for both the body and the mind ).

   4. How do you find the right balance between your cycling career and your personal life?

Finding the right balance between school and cycling isn't easy, especially now that workouts are getting longer but the days are always 24 hours long. You have to try to organize yourself in advance, knowing if you will have more or less time to study the next day. Lately the difficulty is even greater as skipping several days of school due to withdrawals, I have to try to make up for the missed lessons.

   5. Hardest and most satisfying moment in your cycling career

There are many difficult moments in cycling and they can happen for a thousand reasons.
For me in particular it happened last season, I had done my best to arrive in top shape for a very important race, when that day arrived my legs and luck weren't on my side and I wasn't able to get the desired result.

However, cycling is a sport that can also bring a lot of satisfaction: for me a moment of maximum gratification was when I wore the Jumbo Visma jersey for the first time and then immediately afterwards I was able to get on stage with the best cyclists in the world to the official presentation of the Team.

   6. Goals for next season?

The main objective for the season that is starting is certainly to improve both in terms of performance in the race and in training and in all the other details that can bring benefits to my career.
Another goal outside of cycling is to finish school and graduate at my best.

   7. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In 5 years I don't have the faintest idea where I might be, if everything goes according to my plans I will already be able to consider myself a professional otherwise it will mean that I will have taken another path... and who knows which one!

   1. Introduce yourself

Hi, I'm Simone Olivero and I'm 21 years old.

   2. How long have you been a pro?

I've been racing bikes since I was 6 years old, I turned pro this year, but already last year, being in a Continental team, I was already able to do a few races with the pros.

   3. Briefly describe your sports routine

I train practically every day, sometimes even two sessions a day, then it depends on the periods. The season ended in mid-October and until mid-November I rested, from there I resumed training and also doing other activities such as the gym, running, cross-country skiing and mountaineering. Towards the end of December I concentrated more on cycling, increasing the hours of training, but always quite calm, now that there is about a month left to the first race I will start with high intensity workouts. Then during the season it depends a lot on how many races I do and also on my health conditions.

   4. How you find the right balance between your cycling career and your personal life

It's not very simple, because cycling requires many hours of training and the transfers for the races are always very long, then the Polytechnic of Turin is a demanding university, however it allows high-level athletes to access the recorded lessons and this helps me a lot.

   5. Hardest and most satisfying moment in your cycling career

There have been so many difficult moments, many times I even thought about leaving it, but despite everything I'm still here.
The best moment was the first race with the pros as well as when I signed the pro contract.

   6. Goals for next season?

Being able to express myself 100%, improve further and be able to help the team achieve some important results.

   7. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I hope to still race bikes and be a graduate!